The UN climate talks in Paris (COP21) are right around the corner. This is a big moment in the fight for climate justice. From 30 November to 11 December, world leaders and country negotiators meet. But we know that when they gather to thrash out a climate deal, corporate lobbyists and their media mouthpieces will be there in force.
Representatives of frontline communities whose very survival is at stake have little or no influence over the outcome, and are sometimes even physically shut out of the talks, as happened at Copenhagen. Grassroots voices and positive solutions will be excluded, their stories side-stepped by corporate media – but we can help provide them with a platform.
New Internationalist want to cover the real story – from inside the UN talks and on the streets – reporting the voices and perspectives that the mainstream media usually ignore and giving majority world voices more space to be heard. But we need support to make this happen.
We have launched a Crowdfunder to send Jess Worth and Danny Chivers (two New Internationalist reporters) and Richard Roaf (filmmaker) to the Paris negotiations to report from the frontline on the real story of what’s going on.
In Paris we will:
- Provide a platform for marginalised voices: we’ll provide a platform for frontline communities and other voices you don’t usually hear, through interviews, short films and articles that they would write for New Internationalist
- Explain what’s really going on: we’ll report from inside the talks and out on the streets from the protests and grassroots activists
- Create an alternative media hub: this online hub will bring together alternative, grassroots and progressive perspectives on the Paris negotiations, and tell you how to support the campaign for climate justice if you can't get to Paris yourself
Visit the Crowdfunder.
We know that the solutions to climate change are not going to come from inside the conference centre. They are going to come from the Indigenous people across North America who are stopping tar sands pipelines in their tracks and the communities who are putting democratic renewable energy into practice across the world.
Working together, we can share these stories and others like them with a global audience and support majority world campaigners and grassroots activists from around the world. We will challenge the rich governments’ narrative and, unlike Copenhagen, we will move on from Paris inspired to build the powerful movement that we need to achieve climate justice. You can help support the Crowdfunder here.